The Black Queen

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“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.” – Voltaire

Adventure Rooms Australia offers a fairly standard pre-room experience. After taking the elevator up to their floor, escapees walk into a fairly spacious waiting area where we found a few activities and fewer refreshments to keep us occupied. Luckily our host was ready for us, and was friendly and very interested in Escape Room Addict, as well as our escape room experiences and the escape room scene in general. Once our room was ready, and the rules explained, we were led into our room and given a fairly basic story that offered just a touch of humour.

I don’t know whom The Black Queen hired as her interior decorator, but I like what they’ve done with the place. The construction of this room was well thought-out, and offers secret passages, as all royal abodes should. The colours scheme also tied this room together, fitting into the room theme, a number of the puzzles, and also matching the company colours, which was aesthetically pleasing and great for marketing. A note regarding the number of people to bring as your team: the suggested 5-7 is far too many for this room. I completed this room with a partner, so the only way I could see more than a team of 4 operating in this room would be by taking the competition route that the company offers.

One constant feeling that this room evokes is the need to escape. Sometimes a room will be more about the puzzles or set design, and some just have you going through the motions, but this room has enough of everything to keep its escapees involved and Immersed. The Black Queen made several appearances in different forms, reminding us of the impending appearance of our host, and a number of the puzzles related directly to the theme. A reassessment of the soundtrack would be of benefit, potentially replacing the current selection with something classical, and replacing the “Do not touch” signs with symbols would also keep escapees from remembering that it’s all a game.

The Black Queen offered her guests a variety of puzzles to test their intellect and acuity, and to judge whether or not they were worthy of escape. I love walking away from a room having seen something new, and this room had new experiences in spades. I was unsure when I saw a numerous 3-number combo locks littering the Queen’s study, but the correlations between puzzle and lock were quite obvious, which prevented the need to try a combination on every lock. Anyways, the puzzles offered were so diverse that a few locks shouldn’t bother anyone.

A combination of Room Quality, Immersion and Puzzle Quality in this room really make the escape experience FUN. Aside from a couple of stalls, my partner and I were able to make our way through the room in good time, and enjoyed ourselves while doing so. The linear design of the room definitely appeals to groups of beginners, but I would suggest more experienced escapees attend this room in smaller groups (or in pairs) or you may find that there is not enough happening to involve every member of your group.